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1073days since the 2015 Central Wisconsin Prairie Chicken Festival!

"We went to a party at the Hamerstroms' the other night
and thought we were back with you in Rappahanock County. They are the prairie
chicken people, heat their house with wood, carry their water. They had four
pies on the floor when we came in and three live musicians (and a silent poet)
who played dishwashing music for the dishwashers after supper. Incidentally,
the first pie was an hors d'oeuvre - wild mushrooms, cooked in a delectable
crust made with bear fat. Desert was a mince-peach pie and rhubarb raisin, but
the crust was outstanding and I am trying to learn how. Fran Hamerstrom says
she puts as much lard in as the flour will hold, cuts it in with a single
blade, adds as little water as possible, and rolls it quickly, crumbly and in
raggedy edges. If it looks awful, it will taste fine. They don't shoot bears,
but some hunter gave them bear grease, and it is very delicate in flavor."

Edith Nash, 1981, Hamerstrom Stories: Recollections of the life of Hammy and Fran Hamerstrom

Chicken News

Mystery of the disappearing prairie chickens

MADISON - Numbers of an iconic Wisconsin bird have plummeted in the
last dozen years, prompting biologists to take action to keep the
beloved greater prairie chicken from disappearing from the state forever.

Greater prairie chickenWDNR Photo

Once found in every Wisconsin county, today their population is fewer than 600, making them a threatened species in Wisconsin.

Research at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee had suggested that
the decline was caused by a lack of genetic diversity in the population.

So a team of conservation experts from across the region joined with
the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to initiate a bold
strategy: They brought in female reinforcements from Minnesota with the
goal of introducing some new genes into the local population.

The introduced birds were outfitted with radio transmitters and
turned loose on the Buena Vista Wildlife Area in central Wisconsin. The
experiment was part of the DNR's Greater Prairie Chicken Management Plan
that also is addressing habitat concerns.

Besides the DNR and UWM, who addressed the genetics, the
translocation team included the Minnesota Department of Natural
Resources, The Nature Conservancy-Minnesota Chapter, University of
Minnesota-Crookston, University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Central
Wisconsin Grassland Conservation Area Partnership and the Society of
Tympanuchus Cupido Pinnatus.

The results of their breeding project were successful, but not the
answer to the long-term problem of declining populations, said Peter
Dunn, a biologist at UWM and member of the Wisconsin Greater Prairie
Chicken Genetics panel.

"We found the genetic diversity to be at about the same level as it
was before the experiment," said Dunn. "While the project added some new
genes to the Wisconsin population, its real value was in offsetting
losses in genetic variation that happen naturally in small populations
through a phenomenon called drift."

Drift occurs when individuals with rare genes fail to reproduce and
those genes become lost in the population simply by chance. In small
populations, drift can lead to inbreeding and an increased incidence of
harmful traits that can have a negative effect on survival rates.

The effect of drift means that the translocation of Minnesota hens
simply held the line on loss of diversity. In fact, without continuing
translocation, it is unclear for how long the genes introduced by the
project will persist.

Transport and tracking of the birds proved expensive and
time-consuming, but the project did offer some good news: The scientists
found no evidence of inbreeding, which reduces survival, and did not
see a decrease in the number of eggs that hatched.

"If genetic erosion isn't the main cause of the population decline,
scientists now need to investigate ecological concerns, like lack of
abundant and suitable grassland habitat or poor chick survival as more
likely culprits," says Scott Hull, DNR wildlife research scientist.

Going forward, the scientists will analyze the demographic and
genetic data to determine how many birds are needed to maintain or
change genetic diversity and identify habitat management efforts that
help more chicks to survive into adulthood.

The Buena Vista Wildlife Area is one of four DNR-managed properties
in central Wisconsin that make up the Central Wisconsin Grassland
Conservation Area Project, which was established in 2004 to protect
Wisconsin's native grassland wildlife, including the greater prairie
chicken.